Images From & Around My Garden.

Monthly Archives: January 2014

As a self confessed bumbling amateur I often see a competition here and there, and always usually just ignore as I look at winning images and wonder why anyone other than a genius at photography bothers? This one by Topaz by way of the digital darkroom got my interest.

The winning ones are always without fail amazing! I thought ‘oh heck what the hell, i’m sure I have taken some images that feature ‘light.’

These then at 1000 pixels max are my three entries. First up is the Somerset Levels UK in the early morning rising sun. The second I call Madam.’ And the final sunrise one I call the ‘bird.’

I’ve been asked and asked how I am getting on with this particular lens. Well, if you don’t tell anyone I’m kind of leaning towards thinking it is the most useable and versatile lens I own.

It was more than happy on my old Canon 500D and is equally as useable on the new Canon Full-Frame 6D i have. Truthfully I could not afford the L series with image stabilisation, so felt that this would work well for me as long as I recognised the limits of shaky hands 🙂

Today someone who reads the blog gave me a nudge by way of an email to give an example of the close up attributes of this 100mm lens. Well the truth is I didn’t do many before and afters. I did however have the one below of a small bronze mouse. At just five centimetres long (2″) I’ve included it here in from of the iMac atop a compact camera case. The after is as close as I could get (focus), and then a small crop to show part of the same image in said close-up. If I find any more I will of course add them. Remember, this was taken using the 500D; not the new 6D. Actually it might be fun to replicate using the 6D. Click the individual images to go large.

If like me you have a Mac and don’t use a third party calibration, the Mac has a pretty good built in one which is accessed through preferences. I stumbled on this detailed explanation which for any Mac user is well worth the ten minutes reading and applying the changes if any.

With no camera I’m checking through the deleted items to see if I can keep the ol blog ticking over. I’ll be doing an in depth review of the Canon 6D which should be arriving tomorrow 14th January.

For now then it is a case of digging out whatever seems to look reasonable. Not 100% certain this one does but hey-ho with a bit of processing, not a lot it is one I captured later last year. Don’t forget it will go large if you click on the actual image. Which incidentally will reveal a large amount of posterization; particularly on the upper left area. I’ve been finding lately than when using the Gaussian blur in selected areas, it is leaving large amounts of the posterization. One quick way round it is to use a gradient tool. Reduce the opacity to around 10-12% and use the eye dropper tool to select the colour from the area you need to work. I’m just off to see if I can improve the image.

With the flick of an eye I just have had a wee play to see if I could improve the posterization effect. To use the gradient tool first make a selection and keep the edges soft as you’ll need to do a small amount of cloning or healing afterwards. See second image.